Electronic Arts and developer EA DICE debuted the first gameplay footage from Star Wars Battlefront at E3, giving an early glimpse at how the game’s team-based shooting mechanics play out during a recreation of The Empire Strikes Back‘s iconic battle on the frozen planet Hoth.
EA DICE’s spectacularly-named Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir noted that the studio was given unprecedented access to LucasFilm’s archives, allowing the team to accurately model fan-favorite vehicles and settings from the Star Wars universe. The breadth of available vehicles and unit types was showcased during today’s demo. In the Hoth level, Empire-sided players controlled ground troops, TIE fighters, and AT-AT and AT-ST walkers. The Rebel faction countered with jetpack-equipped soldiers and tow cable-firing snowspeeders.
X-wing and Y-wing craft are also available in other levels, and concept art showed an Endor setting from Return of the Jedi, complete with speeder bikes.
The pre-alpha multiplayer gameplay footage seen above features a campaign mission in which Rebel-sided players must keep a squadron of Empire-controlled walkers from reaching a rebel base. Rebel communications can be disrupted mid-battle, giving the Empire side an advantage while the opposition scrambles to reestablish a communications link.
In addition to individual units and vehicles, players can also assume control of specific characters from the Star Wars universe. Today’s gameplay trailer showed Luke Skywalker squaring off against Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel as the Hoth battle raged on behind them.
Revealed at E3 2014, Star Wars Battlefront features online multiplayer battles that support up to 40 simultaneous combatants at once. Ingvarsdottir revealed during today’s presentation that the game also includes a series of 8-player missions that focus on close-combat encounters.
Though multiplayer is a focus for Star Wars Battlefront, the game also includes a collection of single-player missions featuring AI opponents. For local multiplayer fans, Star Wars Battlefront offers split-screen play for these missions, along with one-on-one battles.
Star Wars Battlefront premieres for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms on November 17.
